My thoughts today:
1. I could care less if one of my work's clients "lost sleep" last night about copy in an ad. I am insulted that anyone would even say that to me today. Otherwise, my coworkers have been awesome today, and i thank them for being sensitive and supportive.
2. It should be illegal for other states to send money for propositions being voted on in our state.
3. The Mormon Church bought votes plain and simple. The Mormon Church is vile. So is the Catholic Church (sorry mom) and the KKKnights of Columbus. Vile, angry, ugly people. I'm sorry you don't have the guts to live a better life. When you meet your God, he may have some news for you.
4. It all starts with people being in the closet. and then families don't think of it is a personal issue. they have no FACE to put with the word GAY. so, they have frightening thoughts about GAY people because they don't realize that gay people are just like them. so, these people voting yes...they have no idea that there are gay people in their families, or as friends, and can't fathom what it means or doesn't mean. so, it is a foreign concept and they don't equate voting YES with AFFECTING good people like you and me. But of course, people don't come out, because all they hear about is how freaky and wrong it is to be gay. IT'S A SOCIAL ILL and a vicious cycle.
5. We should stop paying taxes. Seems like our money is different and not quite as good as straight people's money, and therefore, we should keep it all to our gay selves. Maybe we could go in together and buy tons of gay things with the money, like rainbow colored cruise ships, herds of unicorns, mountains of butt plugs, or majority stock in G-Star or American Apparel.
This is from my list serv at work, written by Jim Hunger. He has some great points:
***
It seems to me that there are a number of issues that became apparent
during this struggle and ought to be addressed:
---It's way too easy to change the California constitution, and it's
outrageous that civil rights can be dictated by a mere majority. There
should be some effort to change the rules to something like 2/3 or 3/4
majority required for a constitutional amendment (usually the rule in other
states), or a constitutional convention. And would it be possible to frame
a new amendment stating that basic civil rights are not subject to the
whim/prejudices of a mere majority of the voting public.
---We need stronger laws against outright lying and deception for political
gain. Granted, some of these instances can be rationalized in a variety of
ways, but Yes on 8 was guilty of outright lies that they continued to
disseminate even after they were exposed. There should be legal means not
only to stop this kind of behavior immediately, but to harshly penalize the
perpetrators, including fines and jail time.
---During the fiasco of Pepperdine Law schmuck Richard Peterson
broadcasting lies for Yes on 8, I complained to the California Fair
Political Practices Commission, and they responded that they saw no grounds
for proceeding against Peterson. That he could get away with this with
impunity, and that a board that is supposed to be addressing this kind of
egregious behavior either sees nothing wrong with this or has no legal
means to deal with it, is simply unacceptable.
----There should be strict laws against churches, and nonprofit arms of
churches (such as Knight of Columbus) from getting involved in the
political arena. Crossing state lines to do this should be a much more
serious offense. Religious organizations that commit these offenses should
lose their tax exemption, and it should be difficult for them to get it
back. Churches should also only get a tax exemption on the meeting space
where they hold their gatherings. All other holdings should be taxed just
like anyone else would be. We are, after all, supposed to be a secular
society, and that principle has been thoroughly trampled upon in recent
years.
***
So, 53% of our state let religion, ignorance, hate, or internalized homophobia get in their way of voting on a LAW that takes away people's right. Okay. But, don't expect the gays to go away. We're pissed, and honey, when you've pissed off the gays, you aren't just going to get a fuck*d up haircut or flowers that are a day old....you're gonna get a lot more. What happens when you kick a puppy one too many times? Try it and see.
2 comments:
I am starting the citizenship process by the end of the month. next time I get to have my say. I am pissed off.
ellie
e with most everything your friend at work said, with one glaring (and very important) exception - enacting laws that limit free speech. as unsavory as lying for political gain is and can be, it should not be against the law. the one thing we ALL have is our voices and our minds and our opinions and we should be able to use them whenever we please. i think that any restrictions made on speech will lead us down a path that will only lead us to tyranny (i know that sounds melodramatic, but it's true).
i do agree that churches who engage in the political arena should have their tax-exempt status revoked. however, the way that churches get around that is by telling their members to donate individually. and those members do. i'm not sure if it's against the law for a religious organization to donate to a political oraganization. and i'm not really sure if i agree with that either. chairtable donations to any organziation is, in my book, a form of free speech and we all know how i feel about that.
i think the key comes down to education. apparently, we haven't been doing enough of that as a community. i think we got complacent. i think we thought that such abject bigotry (especially in racial minorities) was gone. i believe the key is coming out (good one, judes) and making the arguement that we are normal. i mean, why can't we buy airwave time and put on our own gay informercial? we could call it The F(ag) Word.
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